State Divisional Baseball Rankings

St. John Bosco of Bellflower will try to add the CIF Southern Section Division II title plus a mythical D2 state title to its already big accomplishment of winning the Trinity League title. Photo: @boscobaseball/Twitter.com.

We can’t get going on these rankings until most section playoff brackets are out and all of our all-state boys and girls basketball teams have been selected and posted. There’s still three weeks of the season left, except for the CIF Northern Section and we do have one Northern Section team with a shot to finish with a mythical divisional state title if it wins in a championship game this weekend.

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(After games of Saturday, May 13)
(Does include some early results from this week)

Hunter Reinke was one of four Buchanan players who were either first or second team all-state underclass last season. Photo: Cary Edmondson/SportStars.

DIVISION I
1. Huntington Beach 26-4
2. Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) 27-3
3. Eastlake (Chula Vista) 25-3
4. Buchanan (Clovis) 26-3
5. Harvard-Westlake (N. Hollywood) 22-4-2
6. La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 23-5
7. Torrey Pines (San Diego) 24-6
8. Stockdale (Bakersfield) 26-3
9. Clayton Valley (Concord) 21-2
10. El Toro (Lake Forest) 22-7-1
11. Chatsworth 26-3
12. South Hills (West Covina) 21-7
13. Tracy 21-4
14. Palo Alto 25-6
15. Vacaville 24-3On The Bubble: Carlmont (Belmont) 22-4-1, Clovis 22-7-1, Davis 20-7, Foothill (Pleasanton) 19-4-1, Gregori (Modesto) 26-1, Lutheran (Orange) 18-11, Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 21-8, Redlands East Valley (Redlands) 20-5, Valencia 23-7, Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 21-8.Notes/Breakdown: It does look strange to have San Diego teams in the No. 2, No. 3, No. 6 and No. 7 slots but that’s because we just went off of our own overall State Top 20 for these teams and there are actually a surprisingly high number of CIF Southern Section teams in the State Top 25 that are Division II and not Division I, mainly St. John Bosco, Moorpark and Etiwanda.
Clayton Valley has already lost this week to College Park of Pleasant Hill and was dropped a few spots from where it was in the overall State Top 20. The actual drop could be more severe depending on how the CIF North Coast Section Division I seedings come out. That is the only section in the state left that has still not begun its postseason playoffs.DIVISION II
1. Moorpark 24-3
2. St. John Bosco (Bellflower) 24-7-1
3. Etiwanda 22-3
4. San Marcos 25-4
5. Redwood (Visalia) 25-3
6. Casa Grande (Petaluma) 19-4
7. Glendora 24-6
8. Corona del Mar (Newport Beach) 20-6
9. La Mirada 23-5
10. Pleasant Valley (Chico) 23-4-1On The Bubble: Benicia 21-5-1, Fresno 21-6-1, Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 20-7, Newbury Park 20-9, Point Loma (San Diego) 20-8-1, Rio Mesa (Oxnard) 22-3, Sanger 21-5, Vanden (Fairfield) 18-8, Westmont (Campbell) 18-9, Westview (San Diego) 19-10.Notes/Breakdown: We had already decided to rank Moorpark one slot higher than St. John Bosco before the CIFSS D2 pairings had come out but right next to each other in the overall State Top 20. The Braves actually got that top seed. They lost two of three last week to JSerra, but in that one win clinched the title in the Trinity League. Depending upon what happens later this week, we might flip it back the other way.
Of the teams not in the CIFSS D2 bracket, the best bets to finish No. 1 in this division seem to be San Marcos (which is currently up to No. 20 overall in our rankings) and Redwood of Visalia (which was in there early in the season). Casa Grande of Petaluma looks strong out of the CIF North Coast Section, especially since there are a few NCS teams that have moved up to Division I within that section.
Note that will be considering teams from the CCS D1 bracket as D2 for these rankings. Otherwise, pretty much teams from all D2 section playoffs around the state will be considered D2 for these rankings.

Tanner Cunha of Christian Brothers was recently named as one of our NorCal Players of the Week. Photo: Twitter.com.

DIVISION III
1. Christian Brothers (Sacramento) 26-1
2. Miramonte (Orinda) 21-0*
3. Quartz Hill 24-5
4. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 21-6
5. Oakdale 22-5
6. Righetti (Santa Maria) 24-6
7. El Segundo 25-6
8. Analy (Sebastopol) 21-4
9. Highland (Bakersfield) 24-3
10. Don Lugo (Chino) 23-4-1On The Bubble: Brawley 18-6, Drake (San Anselmo) 19-5, Los Banos 20-4, Maranatha (Sierra Madre) 20-7, Nogales (La Puente) 24-2, Paso Robles 23-7, Porterville 19-8, Selma 19-8, Tahquitz (Hemet) 20-5, Walnut 20-9, Yuba City 19-8.Notes/Breakdown: Although Miramonte is unbeaten and headed toward the top seed in the CIF North Coast Section Division III playoffs, Christian Brothers in the SJS has played a stronger schedule with wins over D1 schools, including Vacaville, the top seed in the SJS D1 North bracket. The Falcons also will have to deal with traditional power Oakdale in its bracket. Analy would seem to be the biggest threat to Miramonte. Earlier this season, the two played and Miramonte won 6-5.
Seeing a Sacred Heart Cathedral team in D2 in the CCS (which is D3 for these rankings) that has some solid wins in West Catholic Athletic League play sort of automatically put the Irish into the divisional state rankings as well.
Both the CIFSS Division III and Division IV playoff brackets are being considered D3 for these rankings. With seven divisions in the CIFSS playoffs and five for our divisional state rankings, we have to have at least two of the CIFSS division combined into one of ours. While Quartz Hill is the top seed in the CIFSS D3 bracket, it’s Tahquitz in D4.

Escalon’s Greg Largent was the 2012 State Small Schools Coach of the Year. Photo: escalonfire.com.

DIVISION IV
1. Oak Hills (Hesperia) 25-4
2. Escalon 23-4
3. La Canada 21-5
4. Firebaugh 23-6
5. Capital Christian (Sacramento) 21-5
6. Chula Vista 20-7
7. St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 19-6
8. Katella (Anaheim) 20-6
9. Chaffey (Ontario) 16-5-1
10. Sutter 23-8On The Bubble: Foothills Christian (El Cajon) 22-8, Fowler 20-6, Grand Terrace 19-7, Jurupa Hills (Fontana) 18-7-1, Kelseyville 22-1-1, Linden 20-5-1, Roybal (Los Angeles) 17-3, Wasco 24-2.Notes/Breakdown: It was a tough call for the top spot here between Oak Hills and Escalon. Oak Hills is the top seed in the CIFSS Division V playoffs. Escalon is the same in the Sac-Joaquin for its Division V. Note also that in the SJS we have D3 and D4 teams both considered D3 for our rankings.
Oak Hills, which will have La Canada, Katella and Chaffey in the same playoff bracket, is basically playing down in a lower division that you’d normally expect based on competitive equity. One of its losses was to D1 Redlands East Valley and two others were avenged.
Escalon has been No. 1 in the state in D4 before and has wins over Sierra of Manteca, Linden and East Union of Manteca to go with losses to Manteca, Tokay of Lodi, Gregori of Modesto and Lodi. We don’t go by computer rankings for our state rankings, but do check on some of the D4 and D5 teams and Oak Hills does have a higher ranking of 72 compared to Escalon’s at 154. Escalon also has to win in a tough bracket that includes Capital Christian and Linden.

Jeff Ingles has built Winters into being one of the top small school baseball programs in Northern California. Photo: Tom Crisp/Winters HS.

DIVISION V
1. Winters 23-4-1
2. Rancho Christian (Temecula) 22-3-1
3. Central Valley Christian (Visalia) 21-7
4. Sierra Pacific (Hanford) 24-4
5. Vacaville Christian 22-5
6. Rancho Mirage 18-3
7. Poly (Pasadena) 17-7
8. Dunn (Los Olivos) 17-3
9. Bradshaw Christian (Sacramento) 19-4
10. Redwood Christian (Castro Valley) 17-4On The Bubble: Boron 18-4, Faith Baptist (Canoga Park) 18-1, Fremont Christian 19-3, Hesperia Christian 14-2, Maranatha (San Diego) 19-7-1, Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 14-5, Quincy 20-3, Rancho Dominguez (Los Angeles) 16-4, St. Anthony (Long Beach) 20-3, St. Vincent de Paul (Petaluma) 18-5, Valley Christian (Roseville) 19-6.Notes/Breakdown: We probably spent the most time on this division due to the fact that Winters is actually going to be done with its season this weekend and by putting the Warriors first means that they won’t drop if they win out. After looking over all of the top teams from the CIFSS in its D6 and D7 plus the SJS in its D6 and D7 plus San Diego D5, NCS D5, Central Section D5 and a few others, yes we are going with Winters.
Head coach Jeff Ingles’ team is playing Hamilton of Hamilton City for the CIF Northern Section Division 4 championship on Saturday. Ingles, who won his 500th game last season, always plays a strong preseason schedule and this year that included wins against Fairfield and Cordova of Rancho Cordova. The Warriors lost one to Pioneer of Woodland but beat that team later on. Another loss was to Woodland (higher division) and another was to Pleasant Valley of Chico (the top overall team in the Northern Section this season and placed at No. 10 in our D2 state rankings). Winters also beat Sutter 2-1, which is favored to win the Northern Section Division III title.

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